Sale of Hummer brand

So General Motors is to sell its Hummer brand. I nurse a furtive liking for the look of these wheeled bricks, especially the superb HX concept from the 2008 Detroit show, but I’ve long thought there was a major disconnect (you could call it hypocrisy) between selling these thirsty beasts on the one-hand and pursuing a (very admirable) green research and development strategy on the other.

If GM succeeds with its disposal that disconnect will be diminished. There has been talk, too, of selling off other brands, possibly including Saab, though the company has issued reasonably stout denials about that. But shoring up unprofitable brands is one of the first things to be examined beneath the accountants’ microscope when trading conditions turn bad, and further pruning could well be what GM is considering despite the rebuttals.

Maybe Saturn will get the bullet - this is a brand with less and less point now that GM has largely got quality right with its core Chevrolet brand, and is introducing Chevys that are genuinely competitive, such as the Malibu.

Saturn was introduced in the ‘80s, you may recall, as the way GM would really like to do things had it not got in a mess with the unions, under-investment, the homogenising of its brands and the under-performance of its dealer network.

In a way, it was an admission of defeat. But those days are passing, and its hard to see what Saturn does that a healthy Chevrolet doesn’t. But selling Saab, which has also been mooted, would surely be crazy now that GM has got its product development strategy on track, especially as this marque has a history of producing the kind of innovations we’re going to see a lot more of as the car makers grapple to become fuel efficient and closer to carbon neutral.

So General Motors is to sell its Hummer brand

So General Motors is to sell its Hummer brand. I nurse a furtive liking for the look of these wheeled bricks, especially the superb HX concept from the 2008 Detroit show, but I’ve long thought there was a major disconnect (you could call it hypocrisy) between selling these thirsty beasts on the one-hand and pursuing a (very admirable) green research and development strategy on the other.

If GM succeeds with its disposal that disconnect will be diminished. There has been talk, too, of selling off other brands, possibly including Saab, though the company has issued reasonably stout denials about that. But shoring up unprofitable brands is one of the first things to be examined beneath the accountants’ microscope when trading conditions turn bad, and further pruning could well be what GM is considering despite the rebuttals.

Maybe Saturn will get the bullet - this is a brand with less and less point now that GM has largely got quality right with its core Chevrolet brand, and is introducing Chevys that are genuinely competitive, such as the Malibu.

Saturn was introduced in the ‘80s, you may recall, as the way GM would really like to do things had it not got in a mess with the unions, under-investment, the homogenising of its brands and the under-performance of its dealer network.

In a way, it was an admission of defeat. But those days are passing, and its hard to see what Saturn does that a healthy Chevrolet doesn’t. But selling Saab, which has also been mooted, would surely be crazy now that GM has got its product development strategy on track, especially as this marque has a history of producing the kind of innovations we’re going to see a lot more of as the car makers grapple to become fuel efficient and closer to carbon neutral.
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Yet it’s hard not to wonder, as the twin pressures of a seemingly inevitable western recession and the need to produce cars that are massively cleaner and more fuel efficient, isn’t going to turn the motor industries brains towards engineering their way out of trouble rather than polishing brands. That’s where where much of the manufacturers’ creative effort has been concentrated in the last couple of decades as cars have become ever more similar mechanically.

Right now we’re beginning to see the kind of differences in the nature of propulsion systems that we last witnessed around the birth of the car, what with hybrids, range-extenders and pure electric cars besides fast-improving internal combustion engines.

Suddenly, engineering differences, and the emission, economy and performance benefits they bring, are pre-eminent again. That might give brands a better reason for their existence if they develop an effective engineering solution peculiar to them. Or it might be a reason for weak brands to be killed, as the cost and effort of maintaining them has to compete with the cost and effort of significantly refashioning the motor car.